Via the Awesomer, we are treated to the musical stylings of the artist JER and his rendition of the Tetris theme as a super-energising Ska cover. The folksong ‘The Peddlers’ (Коробе́йники) has a ironical O Henryesque twist—the comedic courtship of two young fabric-sellers takes a tragic turn when one rejects the gift of all of the other’s wares in order to encourage him to stay in the business and ends up being mugged after a successful day of sales—somehow seems ripe for the genre. More chiptune adaptations from The Skatune Network at the link above.
Monday, 6 February 2023
tetromino
negative test (10. 529)
Approached by Facebook executives with a request to run an experiment tweaking power demands of certain applications to make using them drain one’s phone batteries, a data scientist refused to do so on 
ethical grounds citing that by dint of the sheer volume of users—in excess of one billion individuals—some were bound to be negatively impacted by a dead phone, lost, stranded or otherwise able to purchase items or verify their identity or alternatively to be gaslit by ones own gadgets, was fired and revealed the existence of this rather sinister experiment (see also) in a lawsuit suing for wrongful dismissal. Details beyond the allegations are sparse since the plaintiff’s employment contract included a clause for binding arbitration, effectively surrendering his right of recourse to legal remedy and submit to the decision of a judge paid a retainer by the social media enterprise.
Sunday, 5 February 2023
native client (10. 528)
Via Clive Thompson’s latest Linkfest, not only are we directed to a collection of emulators of graphing calculators like the example pictured but are moreover educated in the method reproducing these classic interfaces using MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, an open-source tool to re-create hardware as software)—a collaborative bit of programming by Nicola Salmoria to ensure that historic coding isn’t lost to the ages and that virtual consoles can exist within all sorts of operating system and browser environments. More at the Emulation Station at the hyperlinks above.
9x9 (10. 527)
famous one hundred twenty-three metre spire of salisbury cathedral: Polish coast guard rescues divers near critical infrastructure who were searching for amber
macroagression: some GOP members in the US congress have switched their American flag lapels for tiny assault rifles—see also
backbox: watch composer and sound designer Suzanne Ciani, Diva of the Diode, create a soundscape for a pinball game
donks: a new animated short from Felix Colgrave explores lost cargo, avatars and adaptive bottom feeders
mastodon flock: find your following—via Waxy
cel-ray: a peppery, celery soda that one can still find for sale
rosetta stone: two trilingual ancient clay tablets rediscovered help scholars decipher a lost Canaanite script
brought down by the left-wing economic establishment: Liz Truss attempts to revive her political career with a long screed in the Sunday Telegraph
sæstrengur: Iceland developing contingency plans in case the undersea cables connecting it to the rest of the world are severed
tomorrowland 2055 (10. 526)
Due to budget cuts which already limited the number of planned attractions, Disneyland reluctantly opened up its last themed land to commercial sponsorship, becoming something of a showcase of corporate America, including Dutch Boy Paint, the agrochemical giant Monsanto and its Hall of Chemistry and General Electric with its Carousel of Progress. Space Mountain was proposed initially as a functioning space port for Disney World in the vicinity of Cape Canaveral.
a piece of the rock (10. 525)
Closed since 1969 after the near unanimous results of a referendum not to become a condominium shared with the dictatorship of Francisco Franco (the Gibraltarians much more partial to self-determination than either alternative), the border between Gibraltar and Spain was fully reopened on this day in 1985, effectively ending a decades-long embargo that restricted freight, postal and communication links and ocean-going traffic as well—the concession made as part of Spain’s admission into the European Community.
spy in the sky (10. 524)
Hitting a bit like the Evergreen saga with geopolitical consequence being reduced to, incapsulated in a few albeit funny memes, the US has shot down a Chinese surveillance dirigible, scrambling a pair of F-22 fighter jets and downing the balloon over Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. 
The high-altitude craft was detected in American and Canadian airspace—which was characterised by the Chinese as a meteorological station blown off course, just on the eve of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s diplomatic mission to China, one months in planning and would represent the first constructive contact between the two nations in three years and was subsequently called off due to this blatant provocation. A second balloon was detected over Central America. President Biden, even before rabid hysterics by Republican accusing him of dereliction of duty and urging patriots to take matters into their own hands and shoot rifles at the balloon some fifteen kilometres in the sky and the size of a sports stadium, issued orders for its destruction when it was safe to do so. Having already jammed its ability to relay telemetry back to its operators and neutralised it as a threat, Biden probably, exasperated, had it brought down to placate mobs irresponsibly encouraged to fire bullets in the air and presenting more of a danger to the public with their return trajectories. The Department of Defence casually adds that there were three known incidents of similar violations of US airspace during the Trump administration, with nothing done about it.
Saturday, 4 February 2023
dtp associate (10. 523)
Having already treated us to an extensive survey of graphic design trends of the decade following, conservator and curator Forever Mozart gives us a directory of 1980s illustrators and letterers who capture the Zeitgeist and aesthetic of the era through their profile portfolios and comp cards.
